What Are McDonald’s Jobs Sub-page Titles Saying: A Career or Just a Job?

Our grandmother used to say: “Go to school and study, so you won’t end up working at McDonald’s.” Working behind the McDonald’s counter has always had a negative connotation. But when the financial crisis broke out our grandmother’s changed her tune to: “As long as you have a job, even if it’s at McDonald’s.”

Language is the most powerful tool when communicating a message. At GFluence we’re interested in different cultural habits and matching them with consumer analysis. By analyzing the McDonald’s jobs sub-page titles across countries, we can tell where baking burgers counts as a real profession or not.

McDonald’s Jobs Sub-page Title Comparison

The table below shows McDonald’s jobs sub-page titles displayed in different website country versions. To get a proper global overview we chose nine countries across different continents each using it’s own language.

Source: GFluence

After translating each title we discovered three categories of perceiving work at McDonald’s. These are: as a career opportunity, as a job opportunity and experiencing work as fun. Let’s check out the cultural reasons and language influences behind the results.

Building a Career at McDonald’s

The following table shows three countries where McDonald’s jobs sub-page titles communicate “career opportunities”. These are: USA, Germany and Egypt.

Source: GFluence

On the USA website version you’ll find the slogan: “Committed to being America’s best first job”. Americans have a high career driven mentality. The sub-page title lets users know that working at McDonald’s is not just a “job”, but a career opportunity. The slight unofficial twist to additionally attract new employees is the “s” at the end of the “Career”. This differentiates the company from e.g. a law firm – not to pretend to be something it is not.

Similar as the US, the German website version also uses “Karriere” – “Career” in the sub-page title. We already wrote that Germans are sticklers for officialism and so is the language. But a serious upgrade is that the German sub-page title leads to its own career website. Being a nation of formalists with a strong work ethic, the career website describes various job positions and salary earnings.

Due to the country’s unstable economic situation, McDonald’s in Egypt wishes to act as a secure employer. To enhance trust in their future employees the Egyptian website uses the word “Career”. This also creates a sense of security in the viewer. The sub-page communicates that it’s not just a temporary job, but a real life changing opportunity.

Working at McDonald’s Is Just a Job

By recognizing the tone of the language, you can quickly guess the atmosphere around the message. Reading McDonald’s jobs sub-page titles on the French, Argentine and Japanese website version, we notice an important difference. The version in the table bellow does not speak of a “career”, but a “job” opportunity.

Source: GFluence

Did you know that the word “employment” is derived from the French verb “employer” – to use, to employ. Beacause French and Spanish belong to the same language family, both the French and Argentine sub-page titles sound alike. Unlike the word “career”, the words “employment” and “employment opportunities” are more straightforward. This way, job seekers know exactly what to click on.

In our blog post on language styles of CTA buttons, we discovered that the Japanese appreciate clear and professional language. This is evident from their McDonald’s jobs sub-page title: “採用情報” – “Recruitment”. What’s interesting about the Japanese version is the extremely dry style of the page.

Among other sub-titles you can find “Employing part-time” and “Hiring new graduates”. This indicates that it’s not expected from future employees to have much experience. The photo slide-show consists of very untruthful and fake photos of people on various dis-personal backgrounds. More photos actually show “office” rather than “restaurant” motifs. All this suggests that working at McDonald’s in Japan is not a very honored profession. This justifies the dry language and website design.

Having Fun Behind the Counter

Being a multinational brand McDonald’s knows how to localize its marketing and SEO strategy. Knowing cultural characteristics of the targeted consumers is an important step. But how to use that knowledge in a creative way is more advanced. The table below shows how in Czech Republic, Brazil and South Africa McDonald’s advertises its job opportunities in a fun way.

Source: GFluence

As a country of the African continent, South Africa’s population has a bigger sense of community rather than individualism. It is the heritage of the tribal lifestyle. McDonald’s uses this knowledge very well by titling its jobs sub-page to “Our People“. This attracts future employees, beacuse it strikes a familiar cord and evokes known emotions.

A similar strategy is found in Brazil. Brazilians are known to be friendly, warm and fun-loving people. That’s why McDonald’s “Trabalhe Conosco” – “Work with us” sounds like an invitation to samba. Another variation is the Czech “přidej se” – “join in”. The rapid growth of modern consumerism in post-soviet countries is due to intense advertising of Western companies. McDonlad’s is spreading its image of “love and food” to Czech republic and trying to attract new workforce with catchy and personal slogans. The strategy is risky, beacause Czechs are known to be socially awkward. But as the targeted audience are young people, we believe it serves the purpose.

Would you like to hire workforce from abroad, but not sure how to convey the message? Tell us the countries and we will tell you how to shape the content.

Featured Source Image: Pixabay.com

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